Senior patients sought for reduced-price dental services

The sharp whine of a routine teeth cleaning bounces down the hall on a relatively quiet day at the Senior Friendship Centers' dental clinic. Volunteer dentist Bart Levenson does the honors, while Alexander Arnold and dental director Howard Rosov talk about the joys of donating their skills to older adults in need.

It will not be so quiet around here for long. These retired dentists expect to be joined soon by colleagues who spent their summers up north. The clinic's staff of 10 dental professionals will swell to 40, placing the long-running clinic in an unusual position: Looking for new patients.

To qualify for reduced-price oral care here, patients must be 55 or older, with incomes at or below 200 percent of the U.S. poverty level — $22,980 per year for a single person and $31,020 for a couple. Rosov says the clinic's services top out at about half of the usual commercial fee, with charges depending on what patients can afford.

“They may come out paying $10 or $20 for what would cost $100 at a regular dentist's office,” he says.

The quality of care? Good enough, Rosov and Arnold say, that they rely on colleagues for their own dental needs.

“This is as good as or better than you'll get anywhere in town,” Arnold says. “We have the experience, and we have the time to sit and talk with our patients.”

Because Medicare does not cover dental services, and Florida's Medicaid program has limited coverage for adults, the Senior Friendship Centers are a refuge for elders who cannot afford to have their teeth cleaned, filled or pulled — a problem that often results in expensive emergency room visits. Arnold says most of the patients he sees have not been to a dentist for some years.

A new report from Oral Health America ranks Florida near the bottom when it comes to older adults' dental care — just above Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi. Along with this state's Medicaid limitations, its shortage of dental professionals and lack of government attention to elders' dental needs were cited in the report, “A State of Decay.”

According to the report, 70 percent of older Americans do not have dental insurance, 30 percent are losing their teeth and 23 percent have not seen a dentist for five years. Of those who lack coverage, 8 of 10 say they could not afford a major dental procedure.

The Senior Friendship Centers clinic has handled almost 1,500 visits in the last year, with nearly 400 new patients. Rosov says he would like to see that number double. This month the clinic will add digital radiography to its services, eliminating the need for traditional dental X-rays and the waiting time they involve.

“Immediately, it's taken and you see it on the screen in front of you — a virtual picture of the tooth,” Rosov says. “The patient can look at it with you.”

Time to discuss oral health with a patient is something the volunteer dentists appreciate, he adds.

“These are people who were quite successful in private practice, and they come down here and want to give back,” he says. “They love dentistry and love the patients.”

Students from the LECOM School of Dental Medicine in Lakewood Ranch will be returning in the high season to assist with patients. Rosov says they, too, enjoy the chance to discuss cases and learn from the seasoned dentists.

“At any other office, doctors run from patient to patient, chair to chair,” he says. “Here, we'll see a patient scheduled for an hour, and there's time to talk.